Three Stanford scientists receive NSF Young Investigator Awards

STANFORD -- Three Stanford scientists were among the 197
scientists and engineers selected by the National Science Foundation this
year to receive NSF Young Investigator Awards, a program designed to
recognize outstanding young faculty and enhance their careers.

The young investigator awards provide up to $100,000 per year of public
and private funds for five years. Each year, NSF provides $25,000 in base
support and up to $37,500 to match support that the researcher receives from
private or nonprofit sources.

Awards were made based on a merit review of the 1,435 nominations that NSF
received. The review emphasized an individual's accomplishment to date and
potential to make substantial contributions to the overall academic
enterprise.

This is the last year that these awards will be made. According to the
agency, they are being "subsumed" by a new Faculty Early Career Development
(CAREER) program that will be tailored to specific science and engineering
disciplines.

Griffin's research lies at the boundary between chemistry and biology. His
primary interests are the methods by which molecules recognize each other and
the process of catalysis. (A catalyst is a compound that speeds up a chemical
reaction without undergoing any permanent change.) One of his current
research efforts involves the creation and study of "catalytic antibiotics."
Normally, antibiotics fight foreign bacteria and fungi by attacking specific
enzymes or compounds attached to the intruders' outer membrane. Normally,
they destroy themselves in the process, so it takes a large number of
antibiotic molecules to neutralize one bacterium. Starting with two commonly
used antibiotics, vancomycin and bacitracin, the chemist is searching for
derivative compounds that can attack bacteria without destroying themselves.
If this effort is successful, it could lead to more powerful antibiotics.

Khosla uses genetic engineering to imitate the way in which nature makes
an important class of biological molecules, called polyketides, that are
found in a number of antibiotic, immunosuppressant and anti-cancer drugs.
When drug companies begin looking for a new drug and have no place to start,
they begin by screening thousands of natural products looking for a
“lead” molecule that exhibits some of the desired activity. Khosla's
approach is an alternative to the traditional method that could develop into
a better way to identify some kinds of lead molecules. He has used it
successfully to create a number of novel polyketides that have not been seen
in nature. Recently, he has started a new project that attempts to apply this
basic approach to the discovery of new enzymes.

How randomness of nature appears out of atomic perfection is the focus of
Marcus' research. At the level of the single atom, nature is perfectly
ordered and each atom of the same element is identical. By contrast, at the
macroscopic level of everyday life, disorder, randomness and unrepeatability
appear. By fabricating ultraminiature semiconductor structures known as
quantum dots that lie midway in size between atomic and bulk scales, Marcus
has shown that even structures free of disorder can exhibit random behavior
due to the quantum mechanical signatures of chaos. Quantum dots are tiny
spots of electrical conductor, a ten- thousandth of a centimeter across, that
are given a precise shape using advanced nanofabrication techniques. Although
the quantum dot is free of disorder, one of its electrical properties
- its impedance to electron flow - varies randomly when it
is subjected to an external magnetic field, Marcus has found. This is one
example of the research that he is pursuing at the "mesoscopic" realm that
lies midway between the atomic and macroscopic scales.

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